When Kostas Miras noticed that a ship was seeking shelter from the high winds off the waters of Elafonisos the island on the southern end of the Laconic Gulf in Peloponnisos on, Sunday, 16 January, he realised that the vessel was none other than the Rainbow Warrior, flagship of the international organisation Greenpeace.

Mr Miras is a member of the Elafonisos Eco Association, an environmental group dedicated to among other things, cleaning up the island’s beaches and monitoring its sea turtle population. To have a a legendary craft like the Rainbow Warrior lying to near your island is as big a deal and word soon spread on the island.

“As our Association shares some common principles and values with those of Greenpeace, we thought it a good idea to get in touch with Mike Fincken, their captain,” said the president of Elafonisos Eco, Enrico Toja. The plan was hatched to deliver gifts from the association to the captain of the Rainbow Warrior.

The problem was that bad weather and the high winds made any approach to the Rainbow Warrior difficult if not dangerous.

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After repeated radio calls, Captain George Stylianakos of the island ferry Marilena was able to make contact with Captain Fincken who gave permission for the islanders to approach the Rainbow Warrior and deliver their gifts. But they had only an hour to do so as the ship was set to set sail for Crete.

A member of the Elafonisos Eco who is a sustainable development consultant, Vini Filippi, sought the local sea taxi to deliver the gifts but it was in Neapolis and would only return in the afternoon. Captain Stylianakos called on his fisherman friends to take Ms Filippi but all were out fishing.

But her luck held out and Giorgios and Theodora Liarou were on hand to help her to find someone in the local kafeneion who would be willing to take her to the Rainbow Warrior.

Pavlos Kapsalis volunteered his services and took Ms Filippi and Mr Liarou on his speedboat, Agia Paraskevi to deliver the gifts.

Although the choppy waters made the approach to the ship difficult, the gifts from Elafonisos were eventually delivered to the Rainbow Warrior.

On her return to the island Ms Filippi received a message from Captain Fincken:

Dear Vini,

What a lovely gesture to Rainbow Warrior, so welcoming, thank you. We anchored off Elafonisos to shelter from the NE wind and waited for a good sailing wind to take us on to our destination, Heraklion. I am so pleased you made contact and thanks so very much for the T-shirts and the cotton bag. I’m sorry I missed you though – I had a little gift ready in return but the sailor who greeted you did not report into the bridge and so I missed you. I have checked your website and cannot find a postal address – please send that to me and I will post it from Heraklion.

We set sail a half hour after your visit.

Fair winds,

Mike”

Mr Toja said: “With the generous support of the local inhabitants of the island, ‘Mission accomplished!’. We are grateful that we managed to be so close to this legendary ship and that there is now something from our Association travelling with them.

“When the ship left, a natural rainbow appeared over Elafonisos, saying goodbye to the Rainbow Warrior,” Mr Toja said.